Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has officially been ruled out for Sunday’s game at Latest England after suffering a concussion in Miami’s Christmas Day loss to Green Bay.
Miami coach Mike McDaniel said Friday that Tagovailoa remains to be within the NFL’s concussion protocol and is each day as he focuses on his health.
“He’s higher than the day before,” McDaniel said. “But I’m also attempting to get a team able to play this game, and it really doesn’t do anybody any service to over talk the scenario where he’s got to be focused on his health and nothing else.”
Teddy Bridgewater will lead Miami in Sunday’s critical division matchup, which will likely be a think about whether the Dolphins clinch their first postseason berth since 2016. The Dolphins can clinch the playoffs with a win and a Latest York Jets loss to Seattle, or a tie combined with a Jets loss and Pittsburgh Steelers loss or tie.
For Tagovailoa, it is not clear when, or if, he’ll return to the sphere, but many current and former players have expressed concern for his long-term health after his second confirmed concussion of the season.
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McDaniel has appeared equally concerned for his 24-year-old starting quarterback, but has chosen his words fastidiously, offering few details on Tagovailoa’s future. He said Friday that he has blocked out outside opinions “diligently” regarding Tagovailoa’s health.
“I have not read or talked or heard anything outside of doing my job with the those that I work with,” McDaniel said. “I believe from an integrity standpoint, it is important for me to do the whole lot for the proper reasons and never have influences either way with regardless of the situation is.”
Tagovailoa was previously concussed in a Week 4 loss to Cincinnati on a play that knocked him unconscious and caused him to be stretchered off the sphere.
That was 4 days after he was allowed to return to a game against Buffalo after he appeared disoriented following successful. It was an unsettling scene as Tagovailoa wobbled when he tried to get back on his feet, and the NFL later modified its concussion protocol to mandate that any player who shows possible concussion symptoms — including an absence of balance or stability — sit out the rest of a game.
When he returned for Miami’s Week 7 matchup against Pittsburgh, Tagovailoa spoke about how stressful the entire process had been.
“It’s been a process, that’s obviously,” Tagovailoa said in October. “Having to cope with the interviews with the NFL and the NFLPA after which having to go and see doctors outside with second opinions … but all of it is finished for player safety. I’m glad that I got to undergo those things to sort of understand more of the deals of concussions and the results.”
Tagovailoa’s brother, Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, told the Associated Press on Thursday that he does worry about his brother’s long run health, given how much information is on the market on Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the progressive brain condition brought on by repeated blows to the top.
“That’s my brother,” he said. “I would like him to all the time be secure, but at the identical time play the sport that he loves and do what he likes to do and see him pleased. In life I feel like all of us should make those tough decisions, no matter what he seems like doing for the time being. There are lot more years and a variety of more time too, because he’s still young.”
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